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Governor Martinez will Speak to Bernalillo County Republican Party. How on Earth is this a "controversy"? It isn't. Trump campaign officials and other Candidates are of course going to Speak as well.

01/24/2020

Former Governor Susana Martinez has been invited to speak at the county convention. She did not ask to speak. She was invited to speak. It was a logical invitation. Martinez will talk about how important it is for all Republicans, especially in Bernalillo County, to work as hard as they can to re-elect President Donald J. Trump as well as all the other Republican candidates up and down the ballot.

How on earth, in the minds of any Republicans, is this in any way controversial?

Answer: It isn't. It's the opposite of controversial. It's a no-brainer. Martinez is the only statewide elected official in the history of the state to organize a unified effort to turn the state Republican.

She is the only statewide elected official to raise money—some $4 million—for the purpose of electing Republicans to the legislature and other offices. It was through her cooperative efforts at fundraising and messaging that the Republicans captured the State House of Representatives in 2014—and that was the first time that had been done in 60 years!

Why is Martinez, in particular, especially suited to talking about unity and winning elections? Because of what we just wrote. She is unique in that respect.

Politicians are notoriously self-protecting and self-centered, focusing only on their own political races and on protecting themselves. For all of his success, winning six terms, Pete Domenici never did the kind of unifying and cooperative spending that Martinez did. No one has. Not Bruce King for his party. Not Jeff Bingaman. Not Bill Richardson. No one.

There is nothing at all controversial about having Martinez speak ANYWHERE to any Republican group.

We have no idea why there is a coordinated effort by the Republican Party of New Mexico and the minions and disciples of divisive people like Anissa Tinnin and Steve Pearce to viciously attack both Martinez and the volunteer Chairwoman of the Republican Party of Bernalillo County, Julie McIntyre Wright.

None of it makes any sense.

The Pearce/Tinnin/Block/Aragon crowd are even spreading the lie that the Trump campaign people will not be allowed to speak. But, again, that is a lie. They are going to speak.

Immaturity and Stolen E-mails

It is our understanding that in this whole process there was a stolen email involved. One in which an exasperated and harrassed Bernalillo County party official who had gotten angry at the way he was being treated, lashed out that some unnamed people.

He did write: "After all their shenanigans and ridiculous behavior, including taking credit for things they didn't do..trying to steal (and kick us out of) the office"..."harassing Julie by accusing her of being disloyal to the president,"...and "acting literally like nazis..."

He did not say that anyone was a "Nazi." He said they "acted" like it. In the same vein as the famous Soup Nazi.

What would a mature party leader and party leadership do?

They might call or talk to people to try to reach an understanding or an accommodation of some sort. Just calm people down.

But what did Steve Pearce and Anissa Tinnin do?

They went public with all of it. Publishing rebukes and accusations and repeating stuff.

Folks, that is not what mature, calm, thoughtful, intelligent party leaders—or any kind of leaders—actually do. It just isn't.

Tinnin is highly suspect in this whole thing as she has massive experience in stolen emails. It may be her forte.

Why Pearce believes in stolen email and these kinds of nonsensical actions are beyond us. We have no idea.

FACTS FOR THE PUBLIC TO CONSUME

Susana Martinez was invited to speak by a hard-working volunteer party chair. That is logical and sensible.

Martinez has only one message: Unity and hard-work for Trump and the entire Republican slate.

Tinnin and Pearce raised a tempest in a teapot to public view. That is very dumb.

Eddy Aragon attempted to run for Albuquerque City Council in 2017 as an independent (he's been in multiple parties); did not file proper paperwork, nor accurate reports of fundraising, got into shouting matches over it, filed a false police report, and ultimately dropped out of the race (he was never competent enough to actually get in). He also is continuously making noise about running for the US Senate.

John Block worked for Democrat Tim Keller during the 2017 Albuquerque mayoral race. He also interned for Democrat Senator Martin Heinrich. So he has converted, and that is fine. (As Catholics say, "there's no one more zealous than a convert.") But it is a bit rich for him to lecture to anyone about the "purity" or longevity of their Republican commitment.

Bottom Line

If Republicans want to be successful, they have to realize that they either need to stop listening to the divisive messages constantly being preached by Pearce, Tinnin, the Gang of 8, and the Galassini Cult in Alamogordo.

Their only hope is unity and hard work at the local grassroots level, ignoring the social media attacks that the state party and their allies constantly produce to try to discredit Republicans they don't approve of.

The state party needs to get out of the business of :

Attacking fellow Republicans

Choosing favorite candidates in legislative races

Trying to force candidates to hire particular consultants or staff (with the threat of recruiting a primary opponent)

Stealing emails (for heaven's sake, this has to finally stop!)

Choosing favorite candidates in congressional races

Attacking Republicans for not being among the 25-30% of primary voters who initially supported Trump

Trying to discourage millions of Republicans who didn't vote for Trump in the primary, but DID SUPPORT him in the General Election

All of these things are not only divisive, they are downright stupid.

Republicans must change these approaches—PROVIDED they are serioius about winning.

National Issues

2016 Presidential Campaign - Democrats

2016 Presidential Campaign - Republicans

Jeb Bush gets religion.

"They said he got religion at the end, and I'm glad that he did." — Tom T. Hall. The Year Clayton Delaney died.

Well, it's official. Jeb Bush has changed quite of few of his positions on illegal immigration. The single most significant is that he no longer endorses the "path to citizenship" for those who came here illegally.

This is, after all, the key portion of any proposal aimed at "reforming" our existing illegal immigration situation.

No sensible citizen can see any point in trying to deport between 12 and 16 million people currently living in America illegally. And no candidate for any office that we know of supports that. What the average American wants is for the country to "get a handle on it." They want it stopped, our borders secured and future illegal immigration prevented. It is a national security issue.

The Path to Legal Status

The only way to accomplish the above goals, is to identify current illegal immigrants, get them accounted for, have them documented, and placed on a path to legal status. Neither they nor their children or spouses should live in a state of fear or anxiety.

But a path to "citizenship" is not the right course. It is not morally or legally correct. A merciful and compassionate nation can provide the safeguards of legal status without sending the message to the rest of the world that all you have to do is cross our border and you will eventually get to become a citizen, thus circumventing the legal framework scores of millions of Americans have followed, honored and respected.

If someone who is granted legal status eventually wants to become a citizen, that person should have to return to his or her country of origin and wait in line like 20 million people around the world are doing at any given time. Failing that, America will forever send the signal that anyone in the world can "jump the line," and that there is no reason at all to obey our immigration and naturalization laws.

We Like Jeb Bush

We are glad Jeb Bush has learned this lesson. He is a fine speaker, and can eloquently explain his positions on complex issue. If he were not named "Bush" he would be an actual top tier candidate—in all that that title would entail, including likelihood of acceptance and support of and from the American people in the primaries, and in any theoretical general election.

We also recognize that he already is a de facto top-tier candidate because of his fame and his fundraising.

If he were to be the nominee of the Republican Party we would heartily support him and endorse him. We hope, however, that he is not, as he does not give the center-right coalition the best chance of winning.

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Selma ?????
We have now seen the Oscar-nominated movie Selma. Our earlier allusion to criticism that sounded as though it was in an Oliver Stone category for historical fabrication is some...

Sports

The Major League Baseball Playoffs are not realistic, and destroy the actual meaning of the sport.

Major League Baseball is unique in this respect—its postseason is markedly different from the way the game is played normally. No other major league sport suffers from this flaw.

Not that much is wrong with baseball. In some respects it's the most well thought-out sport there is. The "perfect game" many aficionados say.

But the Major League Baseball postseason experience is unique in the world of professional sports, and not in a good way.

In fact the playoffs are flawed in such a way as to detract from the sport itself and diminish the game and what it means to be the world champion of the sport.

Among the Big Four team sports of North America: football, hockey, basketball and baseball—and all the 122 professional major league teams competing in the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB respectively—it is in baseball alone that the postseason turns the sport itself on its head and makes it reflect something that it is not. This article will explain why that happens and why it is wrong-headed.

Background on the The Frequency of Play

The 30 teams in both the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association teams play a very similar schedule. On average, each team has a day off between games, sometimes two days off. Though there are back-to-back games, they are relatively infrequent. NBA teams play between 14 and 22 back-to-back games a season, and for the NHL it usually ranges between 9 and 19. The NFL has a full week between games, the exception being the new Thursday games that each team plays once, leaving them only four days' rest once a year.

But baseball players play every single day. Ten days straight, then a day off, then seven more games, then a day off, then ten more games. Typically a baseball team plays 27 games every 30 days. For the NHL and NBA it would be 14 per month, and for the NFL the number would be 4.

Getting to the Playoffs: It's a grind

In all four sports, getting to the postseason requires a total team effort—in fact an all-out total organizational effort. Teams must be deep, have bench strength and the capability of moving players in and out of the lineup, and on and off the roster, who can take the place of key players who go down for an injury, or who have to miss games for whatever reason. While this is true of the other three major sports as well, it is most certainly even more of a concern for baseball teams because of the sheer volume of games in which a team must field a competitive lineup.

Each league's regular season* is a marathon, not a sprint. NFL teams play for 17 weeks, 16 games. The NHL has an 82-game season over six months, paralleled by an NBA season of 84 games over the same timeframe. Baseball is the biggest marathon of all—a true test of resilience and endurance—162 games usually starting around the beginning of April and finishing about the end of September.

NHL teams carry 23-man rosters, of which 20 can be active for any particular game. The NBA is similar, with 15-man rosters of which 13 can be on the bench for a given game. In the NFL, the teams have 53 players on a roster, but only 46 can suit up on game day. In Major League Baseball, teams have a 25-man active roster, and all 25 are at the park every day.

The Postseason Playoffs: Sport by Sport

The National Football League:

Of the 32 teams, 12 qualify for the playoffs. The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season. Each team plays once a week, the exception being that the four top teams get the first week off. For a typical qualifier to reach the Super Bowl, the team must play three consecutive weeks. At that point both remaining teams have two weeks off before the Super Bowl.

In short, the playoffs, with a game each week, reflects the same means of advancement as is present in regular season grind.

The National Hockey League:

16 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason. The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season: a game, a day off, a game, a day off, a game, a day off, and so on. Just as in the regular season, there are occasionally two days off. But the playoffs require the same stamina, the same approach as that required to make the playoffs.

The National Basketball Association

16 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason. The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season: a game, a day off, a game, a day off, a game, a day off, and so on. Just as in the regular season, there are occasionally two days off. But the playoffs require the same stamina, the same approach as that required to make the playoffs.

Major League Baseball

10 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason. (Although four of those teams qualify only for a one-game do-or-die play-in game.)

Here is where all similarity to baseball ends.

Unlike the other three sports whose playoffs mirror the test of the regular season, and whose conditions are the same as the regular season, Major League Baseball playoffs in no way resemble the sport itself. In hockey, basketball and football, the teams win playoff games and reach the pinacle of the sport in exactly the same way that they qualify to try to do so.

Not so in baseball. They are two entirely different concepts. Teams make the playoffs only because they have depth, five-man pitching rotations and can play day-in and day-out at a high level. But the baseball playoffs suddenly become a kind of "all-star" game within each team's roster. MLB playoffs are conducted in a way that more closely follows the NBA and the NHL. Teams have enormous numbers of days off.

Here's the key point: No Major League Baseball team could even qualify for the postseason if they played the same way during the regular season that they do in the playoffs. None.

In the regular season Major League Baseball teams have to use a 5-man starting rotation, with pitchers pitching every 5th day. There are not enough days off to have even a four-man rotation, let alone a team with three pitchers. Even the best team in baseball using only a 4-man rotation, would wear them out, and most likely end up with a record of something like 66-96, or 70-92—and that would be if they were otherwise teh best team in the sport.

The 2014 Baseball Postseason is Typical

As examples, last year's World Series teams the Kansas City Royals played only 15 games in 30 days, and the San Francisco Giants played only 17 games in 30 days. The 12 to 15 days off in the non-baseball fantasy world of the MLB postseason, means that teams can turn to three pitchers and give all of them plenty of rest. But it isn't the way baseball really works.

At one point, the Royals had 5 consecutive days off, and the Giants had 4. This never happens in the regular season.Even the All-Star break is only three days. Very rarely is there anything beyond a one-day break, and even that happens only a couple of times a month.

What this means is that neither team used the team that got them to the playoffs. (The NFL, NBA and NHL teams ALL used the very same teams that got them to the playoffs.)

Baseball teams use a three-man pitching rotation in the playoffs. Sometimes, they essentially opt for two pitchers only—conceding the likelihood that some of their games are going to be lost—when their third-, or rarely fourth-best pitcher has to face one of their opponents' two-man or three-man rotation members.

Imagine an NFL team using only one running back and three wide receivers, instead of rotating through their roster in the course of a playoff game—or using only 4 defensive backs and 4 linebackers, instead of rotating 8 or 9 DBs and 6 or 7 linebackers? In hockey, would a team use only two or three of their forward lines? Would an NBA team use only the starting five? They would never make the post season if they tried to present that product to their fans during the regular season.

Those are the equivalents of what Major League Baseball sets up every fall. No other sport drags its playoffs out in such a way as to completely change the playing field—completely change the dynamics of its game.

Why Does Baseball Do This?

MLB does this because the TV networks want to drag out the games so that they can try to have one game each day This requires an unnecessary staggering of games, and creates the phenomenon of 15 off-days in a month.

What about travel days?

What about them? Baseball has travel days constantly. A team may play in Chicago one day and in Miami the next, or in New York one day and Phoenix the very next day. Travel days as a routine part of the game are again, a phenomenon of television, and stretching out the playoffs.

In years past, travel days were employed only when necessary. The famous "subway series" games were played on seven consecutive days. Why? Because there was no "travel day" required to go from Brooklyn to the Bronx. Today, they would put in artificial travel days.

Even fairly long train trips didn't necessarily matter. The 1948 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Braves was played in six consecutive days, October 6 & 7 in Boston, October 8, 9 & 10 in Cleveland, and October 11 back in Boston.

This reflects actual baseball, the way the teams play day-in and day-out, and the kind of unique test that baseball presents to its athletes, its managers and management, and to its fans.

In the modern world of charter planes, teams fly from coast to coast to play games on consecutive days. The artificial "travel day" should be eliminated so that teams can play in the playoffs in the same way that got them there in the first place.

*All these leagues also have pre-seasons and training camps, which add an additional 6-8 weeks to each player's year.